"AFTER SO MANY YEARS OF MAKING THE FUTURE BETTER AND EASIER, WE END UP WITH SOMETHING WORSE THAN WHAT WE STARTED WITH" - ARIANNA HUGGITION

The Lives of Animals!!!!

Impact of Global Warming on Animals

Animals are essential to maintain the circle of life and the food chain. It is just not the animals, but insects, reptiles, and aquatic animals are all interdependent on each other, and even on plants and humans.

• Loss of Habitat and Food

As global warming causes climate change, many great deserts like the Sahara, are no longer able to sustain their animal population. Loss of habitat is most vividly seen in the Arctic, where global warming is melting the glaciers, pushing the polar bears into extinction. The melting glaciers have caused water levels to rise in many oceans, threatening to drown many tropical islands and forests, which teem with animal life. The Gulf war oil spills, along with oil tanker spills, have devastated a large number of aquatic lives. The pictures of dead fishes covered in oil on many beaches, is a sad reflection of the future that lies in store for them. Changes in weather patterns and coastlines affect the food patterns of most aquatic creatures.

Grasslands are also adversely affected by global warming. The effects include; high rate of evaporation, higher temperatures, frequent and severe droughts, reduced rainfall, and lower nitrogen content in forage grasses. Lower nitrogen concentration in the vegetation causes improper digestion in animals resulting in reduced strength, performance and health of animals.

To make room for an ever-growing population, many forests, grasslands, and even deserts, have been made habitable for humans. Rainforests and grasslands support many life forms; they are home to tiny insects as well as mighty, grizzly bears. When forests are cleared out to develop more land for domestic constructions, industrial reasons, and farming, most of these animals have to adapt themselves to live in shrinking areas, where everything is less; food, water, hunting and breeding grounds. Loss of habitat renders these animals vulnerable to being hunted down, either in their own little space, or when they come close to human habitats searching for food. With deforestation, many trees and other plants, which provide food to herbivorous animals no longer, exist, causing death due to starvation and malnutrition. This in turn has taken its toll on all other omnivorous and carnivorous animals too, making the entire animal life susceptible to extinction. Many animals, domestic or wild, who venture into the human habitat for food, eat from the garbage, mostly picking up plastic, rusted metal or contaminated food. This too has a devastating effect on their health.

• Altered Hibernation, Breeding, and Migration Patterns

Studies now indicate a change in the hibernation, breeding, and migration patterns of animals. It is believed that hibernation and eggs lying, which are important aspects of animal life, are now happening on an average of 5.1 days earlier per decade. This unhealthy pattern affects the newborn, and quite a few are now born with defects, or are stillborn. Early egg lying is one of the reasons why insects like butterflies, and small birds, are disappearing fast in North America, where higher temperatures lead to earlier spring seasons.

Many animals and birds, including penguins or flamingos, travel long distances to warmer climates, for breeding purposes. Devastation of the migratory routes and their habitat, has forced many of them to alter their routes or do not migrate at all. This forces them to seek alternative migration habitats, where they have to compete for food and shelter with other migratory or resident animals and birds.

The same is also happening in case of aquatic mammals, which prefer warmer waters for breeding and hibernation. Animals that migrate depending on seasonally linked phenomena, such as the formation of ice, lakes and other water bodies, and the availability of seasonal foods also suffer when the environmental conditions around their migratory destination changes.

Global warming affects us all. Its effects on animals will have serious repercussions on the entire life cycle. Therefore, it is high time we humans realize our responsibilities towards our planet and take steps to protect it from ill effects of global warming. POLAR BEARS AND GLOBAL WARMING: THE BIGGEST PROBLEM KNOWN!!!!Why are Polar Bears Affected?

Being native to the Arctic, these animals are used to live on the ice and the sea and the melting of ice is taking away their habitat in a way. Not only are they losing their habitat but also are also being exposed to starvation since these carnivorous animals mostly feed on seals, walruses and whales which are also disappearing with the change in climate. Moreover, the food that they eat has high degree of pollutant, which leads to birth defects and reduction in the immunity of these bears.

How are they affected?

As the ice floes are melting, most of the polar bears are drowning and most of the time these bears drown because the ice caps retreat before their seasonal time to which the animals are not habituated. The drowning is not due to the fact that these polar bears cannot swim, they can actually swim for miles together but they are used to swimming between ice sheets and the absence of ice sheets make them susceptible. The death rate of polar bears has increased manifold with rate of ice retreat being on a constant increase. The distance between survival and extinction is ever increasing and that has also started showing statistically as the number of polar bears are decreasing.

Most of the time it happens so that before these bears can actually hoard enough food for themselves and come back to a safe place the ice melts and catches them at a vulnerable position. Polar bears are also used to hunt seals, the number of which is also declining. The next point is that due to acidification of oceans the marine animals are consuming contaminated food, which in turn is passed onto the polar bears who feed on them, thus weakening their immune systems and also leading to birth defects.

Is there any way of saving these Polar Bears?

The answer is “No" of we think from the point of view of finding a solution for global warming but there is definitely a gleam of hope that can be seen since these animals are trying to adapt to the changing climatic conditions. The younger bears seem to be able to sustain on the beaches and are also found near the carcasses of whales butchered by humans, which is very unlike polar bears. They would hunt for themselves and their preference has always been seals. So this can be seen as a way of adaptation for these creatures and we hope that they do adapt well to the change and sustain it.